In recent years, China and Iran have achieved positive and fruitful outcomes in agricultural cooperation, as Iran's high-quality agricultural products including citrus and apples have entered the Chinese market. In 2023, China's import of agricultural products from Iran surged by 3.5 times compared to five years ago.

China, like Iran, is a traditional agricultural country. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said, “To build a strong country, we must first strengthen agriculture; a country can only be strong if it is strong agriculturally. Without a strong agricultural sector, there can be no strong modern country; without agricultural and rural modernization, socialist modernization cannot be complete.”

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) 75 years ago, China's agricultural production has continued to develop, the rural economy has prospered across the board, and farmers' lives have improved significantly. Agriculture, rural areas and farmers in China have taken on a completely new look.

First, grain and important agricultural products have been adequately supplied. Since 1949, China's comprehensive grain production capacity has continued to improve, from an annual grain output of only over 200 billion catties in the early days of the founding of the PRC to 1390.8 billion catties in 2023, an increase of 5.1 times.

Second, solid progress has been made in building rural areas that are comfortable and beautiful to live in and fit for work.  Over the past decade in China, a total of 2.5 million kilometers of rural roads have been newly renovated, the rural tap water penetration rate has reached 90%, and the popularity rate of rural sanitary toilets has reached about 75%. More than 580,000 village clinics, over 16,000 rural nursing homes, and over 140,000 mutual-aid elderly care service facilities in rural areas have been built around the country.

Third, channels for farmers to increase their income have been expanded. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, various regions of China have continued to focus on promoting local specialties by utilizing new modes such as e-commerce live streaming, vigorously cultivating new forms of business in rural areas, and continuously creating more channels for farmers to increase their income and become prosperous. In 2023, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in China hit 21,691 yuan. Adhering to the path of agricultural modernization with distinctive Chinese characteristics, China uses 9% of the world's arable land to feed one-fifth of the world's population, making a significant contribution to ensuring global food security.

China and Iran have great potential for cooperation in the field of agriculture. China is willing to work with Iran to implement the China-Iran Comprehensive Cooperation Plan and deepen bilateral cooperation in the field of agriculture, in a bid to promote economic and social development in both countries and benefit the people of both nations.

Photo By Mahnaz Abdi